Dr. Rangita de Silva de Alwis directed the Wilson Center's Global Women’s Leadership Initiative and the Women in Public Service Project launched by Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Seven Sisters Colleges until January 2015. Rangita is a women’s human rights scholar and practitioner with over 25 years of experience working globally in over 25 countries with a vast network of academic institutions, government, and nongovernment entities on women’s human rights law and policy making and institutional reform. She has convened several transnational networks including the Women’s Leadership Network in Muslim Communities, the Asia Cause Lawyer Network in India, and the Gender and Law Expert Group and the Women’s Watch in China. She has worked over 14 years with Chinese gender and law experts and academics and has testified twice before the Congressional Executive Commission on China on the status of women’s rights in China. She has advised UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, and UNDP on state accountability under the relevant human rights treaties and the intersections of the different treaties and treaty bodies. She has lectured at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, Penn Law School and UCLA Law School. She has published widely with the World Bank, United Nations, and in various leading law journals including with Yale Journal of Law and Feminism; Texas Journal of Gender and the Law; University of Pennsylvania East Asia Law Journal; Duke Journal of Gender and the Law; UCLA Pacific Rim Journal; UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Relations. Most recently, she developed a Gender Supplement to the U.N. Secretary General’s Guidelines on Disability and a report to the World Bank on Women’s Voice and Agency.

Rangita has a Doctorate in Law (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School and was a Teaching Fellow with the European Law Research Institute at Harvard Law School and a Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She was a Fulbright Specialist with the Asian University of Women, a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Wellesley College, a Visiting Scholar at Wellesley Centers for Women, and an Honorary Professor of China Women’s University.

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The evidence has never been clearer that women’s political, economic, and social participation and leadership are vital to development. Countries where women are fairly represented in government enjoy greater security, higher levels of development, and more inclusive policy-making. The incoming administration should take
advantage of this critical moment in history by developing the first-ever National Action Plan on Women’s Equal Participation in Public Service and sign an executive order directing that the plan be implemented. This plan would chart a course to enhance women’s equal role in public service and political participation around the
world, and it would transform how the United States approaches its diplomatic and development-based support to women, thus ensuring equal participation in all levels of decision-making. more

It is with great pride and excitement that we introduce to you our first Global Women’s Leadership Initiative (GWLI) Newsletter.
As the newest initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the GWLI was launched at a historic time when the call to women’s leadership has never been more critical. more

Director of the Wilson Center's new Global Women's Leadership Initiative, Rangita del Silva de Alwis joined NPR's The Diane Rehm show to discuss efforts to empower women and change cultural attitudes among men and boys. more

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Women are becoming a bigger part of the global political leadership equation, at the same time that violence against women is seen by many as an epidemic. Students from Eurasian countries, participating in a State Department exchange program discussed these contradictory situations with Wilson Center experts during an event summarized through this episode of REWIND.

Washington, DC – The Director of the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Wilson Center, Rangita de Silva de Alwis, was honored by the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White and the SEC Women’s Committee this April for her contributions as an advocate, scholar, and policy maker forging the path for women’s equality.

"The cost of women's exclusion from the political and public service sphere is a heavy one, impacting not just women but their communities and countries," writes Rangita de Silva de Alwis on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Fifteen students from the China Women’s University visited the Wilson Center where they discussed their action plans and reflected on the transformative impact of the Women in Public Service Institute on their university.

Director of the Wilson Center's new Global Women's Leadership Initiative, Rangita del Silva de Alwis joined NPR's The Diane Rehm show to discuss efforts to empower women and change cultural attitudes among men and boys.

A Joint Study by the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany and Nkumba University with support from the Women in Public Service Project at the Wilson Center assesses the gender imbalance in the Ugandan Parliament by examining the efficacy of the quota system and challenges involved with implementation.

The Women in Public Service is excited to announce a joint event in partnership with Barnard College entitled, “A Global Conversation: Why the UN Must Focus on Women’s Leadership.”
As the United Nations convenes its 68th General Assembly to tackle some of humanity’s most intractable problems, please join us for an exploration of key issues facing women today. Barnard College President Debora Spar, the Women in Public Service Project, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars welcome a panel of UN representatives and global leaders for an evening of dialogue and discussion.

Women, Business and the Law measures how laws, regulations, and institutions differentiate between women and men. It further discusses how the respective laws, regulations, and institutions may affect women’s incentives, capacity to work, or to set up and run a business. It objectively measures legal differences on the basis of gender in 143 economies, covering six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, and going to court. This year’s report was published by Bloomsbury Publishing. wbl.worldbank.org

The evidence has never been clearer that women’s political, economic, and social participation and leadership are vital to development. Countries where women are fairly represented in government enjoy greater security, higher levels of development, and more inclusive policy-making. The incoming administration should take
advantage of this critical moment in history by developing the first-ever National Action Plan on Women’s Equal Participation in Public Service and sign an executive order directing that the plan be implemented. This plan would chart a course to enhance women’s equal role in public service and political participation around the
world, and it would transform how the United States approaches its diplomatic and development-based support to women, thus ensuring equal participation in all levels of decision-making.

It is with great pride and excitement that we introduce to you our first Global Women’s Leadership Initiative (GWLI) Newsletter.
As the newest initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the GWLI was launched at a historic time when the call to women’s leadership has never been more critical.